Our Mission & Values
Our Mission
To know Christ and make him known in Bedford, greater Boston, and the ends of the earth.
Our Values
I. Biblical Gospel
As individuals and as a church our lives are centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ – the good news of who he is and what he has done for us. Though we are sinners and do not deserve God’s kindness, he has demonstrated his love through the substitutionary, sacrificial death of his Son. Christ bore our judgment, so that we might receive his righteousness. Three days later, he rose from the dead so that we might know God as Father and inherit eternal life. Thus, salvation is offered not on the basis of what we have done—as if we could earn our way to God—but on the basis of what he has done. It is all of grace, received by faith. (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:1-10)
This is good news! This is the news that, individually and collectively, we have come to cherish and find our identity in. This means that we aren’t united by any political perspective, socio-economic status, ethnicity, or stage of life. Nor is the church a collection of the righteous. It’s not a social club for the extroverts. Rather, the church is a collection of the redeemed, who have come together to celebrate God’s grace and stir one another up to love and good deeds.
II. The Priority of the Gathering
The Bible describes the church as a family, and the Sunday morning assembly is a bit like the family meal. It’s when we gather to be fed by God’s word, to sing his praises, and to lift up our prayers to him. As we do these things together, it binds us together. It’s when we gather for mutual encouragement and we enjoy fellowship with one another. It’s when we invite friends and neighbors, seekers and skeptics, to consider Jesus Christ, the one we’ve committed to following.
We believe that God’s word creates God’s people, and so we devote ourselves to preaching expositionally through the Bible. What does this mean? Simply that we will take a section of God’s word—it may be very short or quite long—and then seek to understand it and apply it to our lives. Usually, we will go through whole books of the Bible, because we believe that it is God’s word—and not our agendas or pet-interests—that is life-giving. (Isaiah 55; John 17:17; Romans 10; 2 Timothy 4:1)
We also believe that Christians should be committed to prayer. This isn’t a mere formality or lip-service. We believe that prayer is powerful because God is powerful, and so we pray deliberately and thoughtfully. We’ll typically take time in every service to praise God for who he is, reveling in the beauty and glory of our Triune God. We’ll confess our sins to him, as the light of the gospel shines brilliantly against the dark backdrop of our sin. And we’ll confidently ask for his help in this world, as God’s children.
Finally, we believe it is the great joy and privilege of Christians to respond to God’s salvation in song. In singing, we are simply ascribing to God the glory that he is due. Some our songs will be faster, some slower; some of them older, while others more recent. In this, we try to cover the whole range of human emotion and experience. For it is through song that we learn how to lament to God, fight sin, praise him with thanksgiving, and persevere in hope. And rather than the musicians put on a show or “production,” they accompany and assist the congregation’s voice. In short, when it comes to music, singing is the main thing. And when it comes to singing, the congregation is the main instrument.
III. Generous Hospitality & Loving Community
As Christians, we are those who have received God’s love. Now, we want to show that love towards others! We are to be the conduits of his grace. One way this manifests itself is in hospitality towards others. As one author puts it, hospitality is “using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors the family of God.”
This means that we try to live openly and open-handedly with one another. Our lives are interdependent. It might take the form of some ladies hosting a tea for new visitors, two singles inviting a family over for dinner, or empty nesters volunteering to babysit for a young couple. And as we “do life together,” we especially engage in deliberate discipleship and joyfully urgent evangelism.
IV. Deliberate Discipleship
If the overflow of our Sunday worship is our day-in and day-out hospitality, one fruit of such hospitality is discipleship. That is, we seek to do deliberate spiritual good to one another. Sometimes this is more formal, as when two brothers meet weekly to read a Psalm and pray together. At other times, it is more informal, as when two moms share their testimonies while their kids play. It might take the form of reading a Christian book with a new believer, confessing sin and praying for one another, or memorizing God’s word together.
In these interactions, we are seeking to help one another to heaven. By reminding each other of the grace of God, our union with Christ, the power of his Spirit, the ugliness of sin, and the joys of heaven, we persevere in faith.
V. Joyfully Urgent Evangelism
If someone possessed a life-saving medicine, in a far away place, wouldn’t you want them to cross mountain, valley, river, and ocean to bring that life-saving remedy to you? Such is the privilege the church has, as we share gospel of Jesus Christ.
While religious proselytization can be judgmental, sharing the good news of God’s grace shouldn’t be. As Christians, we are simply beggars pointing other beggars to where the bread is. We’re telling others about the same grace that we have received. So, we’re not lifting up ourselves as the model of faithfulness and perfection—no, that is Jesus’ role! Thus, we joyfully tell others this good news, because it is so good. And we tell it urgently because the realities of sin and salvation are weighty. This is our commission, to tell others, both near and far.
VI. Thoughtful Simplicity
Finally, in all these aspects, Trinity Church of Bedford is marked by thoughtful simplicity. What does that mean? In short, we think the most important aspect of our church is what marks every true church: the gospel. What makes our church “significant” is exactly what you’d find today in a Chinese house church, a church for Turkish refugees in Vienna, or an ancient gathering of Christians in the Roman catacombs. The gospel is our prized possession, not any special technique or ministry.
This relativizes the importance of any unique program or strategy. We don’t want to be so busy maintaining budgets, events, and volunteers that we neglect the most important things: loving God, loving neighbor, and proclaiming the gospel.
So our programs are built to encourage relationships and service; our worship evidences gravity and gladness; and our priorities are theological and relational. In short, it’s nothing fancy. Nothing too flashy. Nothing too complicated. In all this, we’re simply trying to follow Jesus Christ, as individuals and as a church, and to live faithfully for him.
